One of the aspects of using computer systems includes involves administration and management of the elements of the computer systems. From a hardware perspective, every element of a computer system environment has to be monitored and maintained, e.g., processor units, memory chips, disk drives, power supplies, network connections, etc. The hardware building blocks are configured and tested before installation. After installation, different kinds of data are collected about their performance, and the data is examined to detect possible inefficiencies or malfunctions. Similarly, the different software components implemented in the computer system environments are administered and managed as well. A multitude of tasks have to be performed systematically to provide configuration, maintenance and management of a variety of software entities.
In enterprise computer system landscapes, where usually a large number of computer systems are implemented, a number of different computer programs are used for performing different tasks in hardware and/or software management and administration. Each of these programs may provide functionality for managing different aspects of various software and/or hardware entities implemented in one or more computer systems within a computer system environment. At any point of time, a user may have access or visibility to only one such program. Usually, navigation between the management programs is necessary in order to execute systematic and integrated management scenarios within the computer system environment. Such navigation between the management programs depend on the particular computer system entity that is managed, and is based on predefined correspondence between the management programs. Therefore, the possible management scenarios are statically established, reflecting the predefined correspondence between the management programs. The static nature of the management scenarios reduces the flexibility in administering the computer system entities. Additionally, when new managing programs or new computer system entities are introduced, the maintenance of the static management scenarios could be very expensive.